Here's a great summer recipe from one of Ireland's top female chefs, Ann Marie (Butler) Kiely from O'Connor's Seafood Restaurant Bantry
Pan seared Halibut with roasted root vegetables, curried butternut squash puree and puy lentils
(This recipe is based on locally sourced readily available ingredients in West Cork)
Ingredients:
Halibut 2 x230g fillets
Butternut squash x1
Roasted curry powder x 1 level teaspoon
Spinach x 2 handfuls
200g garlic butter
Carrot, Parsnip, red onion, celery x 1 large of each (diced 2cm chunks)
Vegetable stock x 500ml
Garlic x 1 clove minced
Thyme x 3 sprigs
Method:
Peel and dice all root vegetables, add the garlic.
Place in a roasting tray, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper and one sprig of fresh thyme.
Cover with tin foil and roast at 180 degrees for 40 mins until just soft with a little crunch left.
Peel the squash and dice up small placing in a pot with half of the veg stock and boil until soft. Add in thyme and season with salt and pepper. Blitz to a soft smooth puree.
Sauté the puy lentils in garlic butter in a frying pan until the butter is melted, season with sea salt and pour in the rest of the veg stock and simmer on a low heat until the liquid absorbs into the lentils allowing the lentils to have a bare little bite.
In a very hot frying pan drizzle of olive oil, pan sear the halibut fillets skin side down first, allow the fillets to cook for two mins on either side until just a nice golden colour appears, season with salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon, place on the roasting tray in the oven for a further five minutes.
After it is cooked through (you will notice it will just about start to flake) allow to sit and rest for five minutes as you finish up
In the same pan that the fish was cooked in add a knob of garlic butter and the two handfuls of baby leaf spinach, as soon as the butter is melted turn off the heat add sea salt and a tiny grate of fresh nutmeg if you have some available. Squeeze out the excess butter
(When plating a dark coloured plate will make these ingredients really stand out.) Place a circle of squash at the very start, draw a line across the sauce with lentils, following with the root vegetables, a cornel of spinach and finally place the fillet of halibut on top.
When serving place, a slice of lemon on top and some beautiful edible flowers and cress for decoration.
Enjoy
